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Sunday, March 11, 2012

'Sreekaram’ offers free treatment to the needy

KOCHI: A charitable organisation at Fort Kochi ‘Sreekaram,’ was launched three years back to provide the services offered by a medical camp to the needy. Run by a group of sextagenarians, this organisation operates from the portico of a temple, where the patients, irrespective of religions, come for medical check ups.

About sixteen doctors render free services. “We used to have long discussions on conducting medical camps and other such services for the poor. Dr G P Bhat, one of the members of the team of doctors, told us about the futility of medical camps. Though, medicines and treatments are made available in such camps, failure in following up defeats the purpose. Such situations gave us the idea of conducting medical camp thrice a week,” says M G Pai, secretary, Sreekaram. Since then, there was no looking back and ‘Sreekaram’ has already become a peaceful asylum for a number of patients.

Last year, ‘Sreekaram’ was also able to amass money to buy an ambulance which gave wings to their dreams of launching a ‘mobile clinic.’ “Many people, especially the ones dwelling in the slums, are in dire need of medical aid. As their accessibility to such free medical helps are limited, we conceptualised a mobile clinic comprising a doctor, nurse and medicines. The mobile clinic goes to remote areas and attends to their needs. It has been running successfully since last year,” says U N Ravi, treasurer, Sreekaram. This organisation thrives on the funds offered by the well wishers in the locality.

It has been giving away medicines worth `80,000 every month. Ravi said that giving free medicines was not difficult as the in-house doctors as well as other medical practitioners and hospitals have been offering sample medicines.“About 30 to 35 people turn up each day to consult the doctors. As many people have to wait for a long time, we started providing them lunch” he says. Now, the organisers of ‘Sreekaram’ are cherishing another project ‘Health Survey,’ through which they hope to offer an idea to the government," he says.

“We wanted to take a survey on the lifestyle of people and prepare a compact data on it, which would cater to all the sections of society. Based on this data, we can have a vivid picture of the medical requirements and changes needed in the lifestyle of the people,” says R Prakash, president, Sreekaram. They hope that the data prepared can be further used by other entities including government.